Initial Thoughts on Key Employability Skills Needed for Future Jobs
Key employability skills needed for future jobs have been on my mind a lot lately. And regular readers of this blog can tell because of the many posts that I have written on the topic. The best leaders are constant learners, and that is one of the reasons why I am placing so much emphasis on this topic. I do not want readers to get left behind at work because of a lack of updated workplace skills.
I created a series of 10 curated blog posts, covering each of the 10 key skills. I looked at the analytics, and negotiation skills and people management got the most shares. All the 10 skills – complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence, judgment and decision making, service orientation, negotiation, and cognitive flexibility – are essential workplace skills, and not just the two that are getting a lot of social shares. The key skills are also business skills that employers want. Imagine how well an organization would perform financially if most of their employees had the 10 skills.
To make it easier for you, in this blog post, you will find a link to each of the 10 curated posts on the key skills. Reading the articles in each of the posts will start you on the journey to personal knowledge mastery of the 10 skills needed for future jobs.
UPDATE: First Published March 2017
10 Employability Skills to Learn and Master Before 2020
These are the 10 curated posts I did on each of the 10 key skills. It will take at least three hours to view and read each piece of content in each post.
- If You Read One Article About Complex Problem Solving Skills Read This One
- Why Critical Thinking Skills are the Secret Ingredients for Success
- The Beginner’s Playbook to Creativity Skills
- Why Our World Would End If People Management Skills Disappeared
- Complete Beginner’s Guide to Collaboration Skills
- Ultimate Guide to Emotional Intelligence Skills
- Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Service Orientation
- How Decision Making Skills Can Get You Your Heart’s Desire
- The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Negotiation Skills
- Bite-Sized Guide to Cognitive Flexibility Skills
Learning the 10 Key Skills Needed for Future Jobs
To learn the skills takes time and effort. To get the process started, read every piece of content in each curated post. It will take a few hours, but you want to create a good foundation of knowledge on which you can build. Take notes while you are reading, so that you will remember more of what you are learning about a skill.
Review your notes, summarizing the key points that give you a solid understanding of the skill.
- What are you seeing that is contrary to what you know?
- What pieces of information go well together?
The information in each curated post comes from different media sources. This gives you divergent points of view.
Each curated post will give you a good foundation, but that is not enough. Articles and videos do not go deep enough into a topic; therefore, you also have to read a book. I have said it a few times now, that I read a few years ago, that if you want to become an expert on a topic, you have to read five very good books on the subject matter. I spent a lot of time on each curated post, so that you can focus on reading one good book.
You can collaborate with friends to learn the skills, and you can each read a different book, sharing notes and insights. If you can find the right people to collaborate with, this could work very well because of the diversity of thoughts. You can get very creative in learning the 10 employability skills.
Actions to Take Right Now to Learn Employability Skills
- Choose a curated post on a skill to start with.
- Read or view each piece of content while taking notes.
- Review notes.
- Move around sections of your notes, so they make more sense. For instance, sections of your notes from a video you watch, may relate to sections from a SlideShare presentation, and sections from an article. This makes it easier to see the bigger picture.
- What patterns do you notice?
- Pick out the core ideas that you think make up the skill.
- What are other big ideas that you notice?
- Can you connect your big ideas to a human need?
- Start applying the new skill you just learned.
- Deepen your understanding of the skill by reading a book.
Handy Guides to Get the Most Out of Learning
The World Economic Forum says that you need the 10 employability skills if you want to thrive in the future. The skills they report, which I mentioned above, will help you in your career. But I think that you need other skills as well. For instance, you must become skilled at learning how to learn, since skills will always be changing. To leverage ever changing technologies, read an article or two a week, in a well-respected technology journal. Written and oral presentation skills are also important, so learning those skills are essential.
To make this easier for you, so far I have created four handy guides, three of which are relevant here – Checklist to Learn Key Skills, Effective Note Taking Tips, and How to Spot Great Ideas When You Read Books.
Good Reads for Career Resiliency: Books for Career Development
The MacGyver Secret: Connect to Your Inner MacGyver & Solve Anything
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly
Related Posts:
Creating a 30-60-90 Day Plan to Apply the 10 Key Skills Needed for Future Jobs
Spotting Patterns: Getting the Most from Reading Books
How to Spot Great Ideas During the Strategic Reading Challenge
